This invention relates to program guide systems, and more particularly, to television program guide systems which display program listings information on a single channel.
A large number of television channels are available over cable and satellite television systems. Television viewers have traditionally consulted preprinted program listings to determine which programs were scheduled to be broadcast on a particular day. More recently, television-based program guides have been developed that allow television viewers to view program listings directly on their television sets.
For example, the Prevue.RTM. channel is a scrolling television program guide (i.e., a browsing system) that a cable system operator may make available to subscribers over a dedicated television channel. Viewers can tune to the appropriate television channel to view program listings for television programs that are currently being broadcast and that are scheduled to be broadcast in the next few hours.
The lower half of the Prevue.RTM. channel display is occupied by a continuously scrolling series of program listings. The upper half of the Prevue.RTM. channel display screen is used to display quarter-screen promotional videos with accompanying text. Nationally distributed advertisements are displayed in the upper half of the display in place of the quarter-screen promotional videos according to a prearranged schedule. In addition, cable system operators may insert local video advertisements and graphics in the upper half of the display.
Cable and satellite television systems now in use can provide upwards of one-hundred channels. In the near future, systems with several hundred channels will no doubt appear, especially considering the increasing use of digital compression and transmission. Designers of program guides for use with such systems therefore face increasing challenges to present this massive amount of program listing information in a meaningful and easy-to-use manner. Continuously scrolling or paging program listings for large numbers of channels presents the viewer with a seemingly endless list, most of which may be of little or no interest. One solution has been to provide multiple dedicated television channels, each with a scrolling or paging television program guide corresponding to a subset of the total number of channels. Such systems may be less than optimal for several reasons, including the fact that multiple television channels must be dedicated to providing program guide information (consuming valuable bandwidth and resulting in a corresponding reduction in the number of television channels available for broadcasting television programs).
Heretofore, long lists of source identifiers (each uniquely corresponding to a particular television distribution facility) are broadcast. Because any particular television distribution facility may have its own program line up, it must have a unique source identifier. Program listings information corresponding to the program line up of each television distribution facility are transmitted along with each source identifier. In turn, each television distribution facility provides to its associated television units a video signal which includes the program listings information associated with that particular television distribution facility's program line up. A shortcoming associated with such systems is that they provide no solution to the problem of presenting viewers with a seemingly endless list of program listings for large numbers of channels.
Another potential shortcoming of browsing systems presently in use is that they lack easily controllable formatting (i.e., look and feel).
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a television program guide system which uses a single channel to display the program listings information.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a television program system program listings information corresponding to a plurality of distinct groups of channels.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a television program system with easily controllable formatting.